This invention relates to communication system message notification systems and more particularly to such systems where messages received from various mediums are all reported to a user at a single point.
It has become common practice within the past few years to arrange a communication system to receive voice messages when a called party is unavailable. The received message is recorded and a notification, usually a lighted lamp, is given to the called party indicating the presence of a message that is waiting.
As data terminals become popular, people have begun to communicate over the data network by sending `mail` messages to one another. These messages arrive at the called party's host computer and are queued waiting for the called party to request their presentation in display form on the screen of a terminal connected to the host computer. While this arrangement is a great step forward in the evolution of communication, it still presents problems in that terminals are not always available for use by a called party. For example, if a data message were to be sent to an electronic address and the addressee were to be away at a location remote from his or her host computer, the received message would not be available to the addressee. Of equal concern, the addressee would not even know that a message has been delivered.
The problems compound when users have several different electronic `mail` services. Users must log on to each such service just to find out if messages are waiting. Then each message is retrieved from each service in a different manner and possibly using different terminals.